


Understand

by Foreign



Category: The Morning Show (TV 2019)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-24
Updated: 2019-11-24
Packaged: 2021-02-26 03:13:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,185
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21546640
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Foreign/pseuds/Foreign
Summary: Bradley just wants to help.WARNING! Spoilers to episode 6!
Kudos: 35





	Understand

**Author's Note:**

> That episode was so damn good, I had to write something, no matter what.  
> I'd be glad if somebody liked it.  
> I don't speak fluent English, but I think there are no major mistakes at work.  
> Enjoy! :)

She tried to make any contact with Alex, even if it was visual, but the woman seemed to ignore her completely after a short conversation before the first report from California. Bradley, on the other hand, could not suppress the feelings that made her had to improve her relationship with Levy. She had to, that's all.

It didn't look like it would happen in the next interview with the hero who saved eighteen dogs. And two cats, as he reminded everyone.

“So, Tim, take us back to that moment.” Said the blonde standing next to her. Bradley looked at her and smiled at the man leaning his back against the car. The cameras approached them and Bradley, as always in such situations, felt different.

Better.

“So once I realized that my wife had picked up my daughter from school, and they were safety situated in a motel, I went home to get treasured items, and to pick up our two family dogs, Marge who’s an old Lab, and Tilly who is her own puppy.”

“Oh, that’s so sweet. So you kept the mother-daughter relationship intact.” She said more or less what the microphone whispered into her ear. She noticed a nod of the leader's head.

“Yeah, you don’t wanna be busting up a family” The man nodded his head, just like Bradley did.

Then she heard a strange sound. It was like a muffled nose sniffing and a nervous, fast breathing in right after that. She turned her head towards Alex, worried unintentionally that she had said something wrong again - but what could she have said wrong?

The blonde had her head turned to the mountains, covered with burning forests. Her shoulders trembled, and then she heard the sound of a sharp inhalation of air again. It sounded like she was refraining from crying. Blonde coughed quietly.

Alex Levy cried? Her first thought was that she was a human being, and like everyone else, she sometimes had to cry. Then she became curious - after all, why, why did Alex seem to be crying? But then the third thought hit her. Fear. She could have destroyed that interview. 

However, she tried not to pay attention to the behavior of the woman. Alex was a professional, she never had an accident during her work, not like Bradley, whose accidents no longer fit on a single sheet of paper.

“The smoke is really – Excuse me” She explained herself by waving her hand gently in front of her nose and smiling at them. Tim hid his surprise as a real actor and Bradley also tried to achieve it. But she couldn't distract herself from the impression that Alex had red eyes.

Maybe she was just sick.

“Yes there is a lot of smoke out here.” Bradley said, turning back to the man with the dogs. “So, Tim. Once you got the dogs in the car, then what happened?”

“Well, at that point, the fires were pretty close, so there was a lot of sirens. And dogs were just barking everywhere. And that’s when I realized, man. There was a lot of people like my wife and my daughter, who were at work and at school.” Bradley again heard the same disturbing breath on her right side. She turned her head to Alex for less than a second and then looked back at Tim. 

“So I just started driving around the neighborhood and checking all these different yards, and finding all these dogs that got left behind.”

At the end of the sentence, Alex made a sound that was far too loud. Bradley immediately looked towards her and noticed how the blonde was pulling her black scarf over her face, trying to suppress the sound in any way she could. Her eyes were closed tightly and her head was positioned so that it wasn't visible in the camera. Like a professional. A professional who somehow lost control of herself.

She looked at Greg, but he seemed as surprised as she did.

Alex moaned when she heard the speaker's voice on the handset. Bradley wanted to take her line to ease the situation, but Levy was quicker.

“So, Tim. We have four of the dogs here today, that you’ve rescued. Let’s – Tell us a little bit about these big guys.” It seemed as if her voice for this short moment turned into a serious one, without any signs of what was happening just now. Bradley sighed quietly, impressed by Alex’s skill.

“Okay, so these guys are from family who, sadly, their home burnt down.”

And almost immediately the sounds of choking, inhaling air and nervous breathing returned. Alex turned her head too visibly, trying to calm down. Tim unleashed one dog that went up to the blonde. She, probably seeing in it some opportunity for a momentary disappearance from the camera, squatted and stroke him on the head.

Bradley, full of anxiety, curiosity and uncertainty, thought it was over. The interview was going to last for a few more sentences. But then Alex seemed to fall apart.

“I know, that nobody likes feeling alone, you know? So if someone out there is suffering or in emotional pain, or needs a family, they might want to adopt one of these little angels.” 

Hearing and seeing Alex crying openly, she took a minimal step forward to focus the attention of the cameras, including the viewers. She inhaled the air and tried to smile. She heard some nervous voices on the handset. 

“It looks like this one might have found a home already” She tried to turn everything into a joke, or something. “Isn’t that right, Alex?”

“It’s just so emotional, everything today.” She answered with a broad smile. Thanks to the sun, which for a moment emerged from under the clouds of smoke, she saw her eyes shine from tears. One of them came down her cheek, leaving a wet trail behind. She was terrified, she would never see anyone so strong and respectful, falling apart in front of her eyes.

“What’s you’re doing it’s just – it’s beautiful.” Blonde said to the man. 

“We’re gonna get through this together. And God is gonna help us.” 

_“Wrap it up, wrap it!”_

She almost instinctively turned to the camera, covering Alex's shrunken body in front of the dog.

“If you’re interested in adopting one of these incredible dogs, you can find all of that info on our website. Unless Alex beats you to it, of course.” She made another joke. “Stay with us for more special coverage of the Huntley Canyon Fire, here on The Morning Show”

The camera flew away from them, someone started screaming and waving hands. They were off the air.

Alex immediately jumped off the ground, bypassed the dog and literally ran straight ahead, shielding her face with a scarf. Bradley watched her leave for a moment, still not believing what she was witnessing. She thanked Tim quickly and went after the woman.

The journey in the car was in restless silence. Greg kept banging his fingers on his knee all the time, biting his lips. They had little time.

As Bradley looked out of the window at a forest ravaged by the high flames of fire, she felt something falling down in her stomach. There were a disaster in front of her. Maybe Alex was acting like this because she suddenly understood what was really going on in front of them? 

But Alex was a specialist in what she did. She would never betray herself like that, not for such a reason, or at least she had such an impression - after all she knew her, how much? Over a week?

Together, they almost jumped out of the car, running to Alex's place. There were some deaf noises coming from it, as if a woman was hitting something and cursing loudly. The man immediately started talking to Chip in front of the vehicle.

“Where is she?” She asked, knowing the answer to this question very well.

“She is in the trailer. Jesus.” He said frightened, when he heard a loud crack and another bunch of curses.

“Alex, open the door!” She screamed. 

Her contacts with the blonde were cold. But it didn't change the fact that she still wanted to create a camaraderie between them so that they wouldn't have to bark at each other at work. She also knew people pretty well. And Alex looked broken a few minutes ago, even though she tried not to show it. Bradley's always had it in her - she wanted to help. _Even_ her, or _especially_ her.

Besides, Alex had power, and she was afraid to stay on the street without anything. 

“I literally need her on camera in, like, eight minutes.” Said Chip, taking the phone out of his jacket pocket.

The door opened. Bradley looked at them with curiosity and surprise and found Alex's face was definitely tense and was surrounded by tousled hair. She was now able to confirm that she was certainly crying - she saw it in Levy’s eyes. And it made her feel incredibly out of place.

“I’m fine.” She said, but for the denial of her own words, she sniffed her nose. “What is the problem?” She said grumpily, closing the door loudly.

“You think she’s fine?” Asked Chip. 

“She said she was fine.” Greg said, shrugged his shoulders. Bradley couldn't listen to it, did they really not realize that something serious was going on? Centrally in front of them?

“No, she’s not fucking fine. I’m going in.” She declared at them as she climbed the stairs.

“Wait, _you’re_ going in there?” Asked Chip.

“Yes, trust me. I am very well versed with people on the verge.” She said, and then she bravely opened the door.

Her heart stopped as soon as she saw in the mirror the red crying, furious eyes. Alex looked like she was trying to kill her, but at the same time she was on the verge of a breakdown.

“Oh my God, what is wrong with you!?” She was greeted by a scream. “Honestly. I don’t want you in here! I don’t want anyone in here! What are you trying to prov–”

She interrupted, making a strange noise and covering her mouth with her hand. Bradley tried to say something, but all her earlier courage disappeared when she faced the woman. It was someone important, much more important than her. Someone with a theoretically equal position, yet at least ten above it. And when Bradley looked into those eyes, she couldn't get one goddamn word out of herself.

Alex moved strangely and it seemed like she was about to throw up. To her surprise, she actually ran up to the toilet, vomiting. When the woman's eyes were no longer looking at her, she regained her previous strength. She ran after her to the toilet, almost immediately taking her hair in her hand.

“I got you. Just let it out.” 

When she was dealing with such a powerless Alex, she felt at least strangely, out of place. With a hesitation she put her hand on her back, massaging the woman as her sometime used to be massaged by her friends after some hard parties. 

Bradley froze for the moment when she heard the crying.

But this time unstoppable. Honest, sad, powerless crying of the most powerful woman she's ever known. She seemed fragile and vulnerable now, and even let herself be drawn away from the toilet. Her face was pulled out in a strong grimace. Jackson closed the flap and grabbed the woman tightly from both sides.

“Come here, come here.” She said, squeezing her body. If she thought Alex had fallen apart before, she was wrong. It has happened now and much harder than she expected.

Her heart squeezed when she heard her crying. Every now and then she said something to her, stroking her and hugging her, looking ahead or to the other side of room. She couldn't look into Alex's crying face, she never wanted to see it. Levy cried and moaned, as if in pain, in her arms for several more seconds, until she probably understood what was going on.

Levy sat down trying to stop the crying, and Bradley took advantage of the situation to reach for a towel and pass it to the woman in front of her.

“Breathe. Just breathe.” She whispered. As the blonde seemed to calm down, she stroke her hair and swallowed saliva nervously, at least feeling uncomfortable. Alex turned her head to the side, muttering something to herself.

“Okay.” She heard and then Levy moved to the other end of the small bathroom, as if in an need to find a personal space. “You can go now, I’m fine.” She said. But her voice broke and it made Bradley unwilling to leave. She looked at her stubbornly, even after she repeated the sentence once again. “You can go now.”

“All right, I’m just gonna stick around for a minute” She dared to say, but Alex jumped up and quickly shaken her head.

“No, no. Bradley, please. I want you to leave now. Okay? You got to see that…” She hit her hand on the toilet. “You got to see me break. Woo-hoo! You got a really good show. All right? So, come on. Please, just go.” 

Her voice broke again, this time more than before. She felt like she was about to start crying again and she couldn't understand it. After all, she saw it with her own eyes, Alex needed closeness, she needed anyone. And yet, despite that, she rejected all her attempts to help her.

Bradley didn't think of the situation as a show at all, but she didn't dare to deny it. Really, now she wanted to know how Alex got into such a state that she couldn't live up to what she felt. And she was weird about it, but she _really_ wanted to help. 

“Please, get out of here!” Probably she couldn't stand it, so she screamed. Bradley, scared of a sudden explosion, quickly muttered something and got up on her way out. She stopped herself from turning back.

She slammed the door behind her, and Chip caught her outside right away.

“Hey, uh, what’s going on?”

“She’s calming down. Just give her a few minutes, and then send in hair and makeup.” She said in one breath, going into a black car that was now sprinkled with gray dust.

She wasn't gonna tell anyone what happened in the damn trailer. If Alex's condition had improved, she wasn't interested in anything else. She mean, of course she was curious about everything and wanted to know more. But she didn't want to go into dangerous areas, such as talking to the explosive, unstable Alex, who could shout at her at any moment.

“I’ll go cover the next segment. Beyond that, I don’t know”

“Okay. Uh, thank you.”

“Yeah. Of course.” She blinked with a smile when she got into the car.

_______________________________

That same evening she interviewed a firefighter, went out with her producer and now read some articles that were to be quoted tomorrow. Hearing the knock on the door, she expected Chip again, having on the phone full of fury Fred, but instead, when she opened the door, she saw the figure of a slightly taller woman quickly turning towards her.

She got stressed out right away. 

Her reaction to Alex was stupid, but she couldn't stop it. She simply kept a cold face while her fingers tightened tighter on the door frame.

“Hey.” She smiled to her. 

“Hi.” Alex said, looking at the wall for a moment.

They stood for a few seconds in tense silence. Bradley had her mouth open as if wanting to say something, but not knowing what - because what was Alex doing here? She wanted to make sure she wouldn't tell anyone about what happened in the trailer? Or maybe she had some orders for tomorrow? Or prejudice?

She didn't know. After all, it was Alex who came to her, not her to Alex.

“Um” Alex started. “I ju– I just wanted you to know, that I know that I’ve been really erratic today.”

It seemed like she was really confessing her guilt. Bradley didn't know how to comment on it. She was expecting something completely different, but Alex was a professional. What else could she expect?

“Okay” She mumbled, looking at her insecurely.

“Um. There’s… There’s more… Um…” She took a deeper breath and looked into her eyes. “Also, the reason that I lost my shit earlier, is that… Um… I’m getting a divorce.” She looked at her as if she was apologizing and Bradley didn't understand it. It was only after a while that her words came to her.

She tilt her head to the side and sighed in understanding. What seemed more important to her now was the very fact that somehow, didn't know why, Alex Levy opened herself up to her.

“I’m sorry” She whispered. 

“It’s okay. I’ll live.” She shake her head and again there was an awkward silence between them, in which the blonde was sticking her eyes into her, which she couldn't give away. So she looked into the ground.

“Is there anything I can do?” 

She finally asked, but Alex just laughed in response and Jackson thought that if Levy was always smiling like that and not necessarily being a bitch every day, she might be a very good friend. But she also knew there was no way Alex would suddenly stop being a bitch to them all. 

“No” She heard the answer. This time she was the one who watched Alex's blue eyes slip to the ground in a certain consternation. “It’s just…um…” Her forehead was wrinkled when she was thinking about what to say and whether to say anything at all. At least that's how it looked to her.

Bradley didn't even have to think about it. She knew perfectly well that what Levy was doing now could be completely one-off, improvised, so she didn't want to interrupt it. And so, from what she saw on her face and in her eyes, what she was saying made her uncomfortable. She preferred not to make things worse.

“My daughter” 

Finally, she whispered in a slightly weaker voice. In her eyes, she saw pain and sadness that she couldn't understand. However, this view was enough for things in her stomach, to move. Sad Alex wasn't one of the things she wanted to look at. She even preferred the moment when she suddenly screamed at her.

“I don’t want to lose her. I know she is gonna blame me, and she is gonna to blame my job. And… I just can’t stand the idea of my daughter, thinking badly of me.”

Her voice was so overwhelming and sad that Bradley would otherwise have hugged her. But it was Alex and so far their contacts have been closely focused on the lack of them. However, the blonde now looked so sincere and so painful that she automatically nodded her head. She understood that it was hard for her and she didn't blame her for that one moment of weakness.

“It’s a lot of to carry.” She said to her.

“Yeah” She was nodding her head. She looked at her again and then Alex seemed to be in a hurry. “Okay, goodnight” She said quickly and left, not looking at her.

Bradley looked behind her, trying to assimilate what had just happened, and then closed the door. She sat on her bed, swallowing saliva and implanting her fingers firmly into the bedding.

Alex tried to explain herself to her, even confided in her. And now she knew that she also had a lot of problems not necessarily related to work, but only connected to it in certain aspects. Bradley sighed deeply, feeling that Alex couldn't handle it at all. Otherwise, why would she come to her? Why did she suddenly have a crying attack on the set?

She realized Alex had no one to talk. She may have talked to Mitch, but for obvious reasons they couldn't keep in touch with each other now. In a way, Chip was close to her, but she couldn't imagine that they were close enough to let him into her personal space. But then, was she allowed in? Why?

She got up fast and put on a jacket. Alex came to her alone, Alex cried in front of her and told her story briefly. She couldn't waste such a thing, such an opportunity, to improve her contacts. She left the house slamming the door and looking behind the rails. She noticed the blonde woman going downstairs to her room. She practically ran down the stairs and immediately found herself a few meters behind her, calling her name. Levy turned around surprised.

“Look, life is a messy. Everybody’s life is messy and complicated. Parents, and kids, it’s a lot.” She assured her, although Alex had probably not yet realized what she was saying. That's what her surprised, worried eyes proved. 

“And, uh… my mum is a fucking mess. I don’t know what to do with her half the time. And it’s probably because… my dad was a really bad drunk, and… one time he was driving his car, and he killed the kid.”

Alex seemed lost in the story, but she didn't interrupt it once. She just moved a little confused. She understood another thing - Levy had respect for her. She gave her, maybe unconsciously, the green light to act, let her talk even a complete stupidity. 

“And I only say that because I was furious with my dad. And I pushed him out of my life. But I never stop loving him.” She swallowed saliva, gently clenching her fists. She didn't tell many people about her father. But Alex seemed focused, and that was enough for her to continue. “And that’s– that’s how it is with parents and kids. And I guarantee, no matter what you didn’t do for your daughter, that you think you didn’t make some perfect life, whatever the fuck that is for her, she loves you so much.”

Alex nodded her head after a while and her eyes flashed in tears. But this time she stopped herself.

“Thank you” She whispered.

There was another silence between them for a few seconds.

“You’re actually pretty loveable, when you’re not acting like wet cat.” She said, and Alex laughed sincerely again. Bradley smiled when she heard that sound. She quickly became serious. 

“And I want you to know, that you can trust me.” She continued. “You can tell me things. You can be vulnerable. That’s okay.”

Alex nodded her head, not looking in her eyes. After some time, her lips smiled gently, although it was barely visible. “Okay.”

Bradley felt something in her stomach for the third time during the day and she felt like she was going to throw up on her own. But she wouldn't regret it. Not if it made Alex seem to trust her, even if only gently.

“Thank you. Goodnight.” She heard her soft voice.

She answered her in the same way, but all the time, until Alex turned her back on her, she looked at her smile. Small, calm, grateful. And even though she wasn't fully aware of what had happened yet, she was happy. Really very happy.

Even if she knew that Alex tomorrow will probably pretend that this day never happened.

She was about to leave when she noticed the blonde was turning violently towards her. Alex leaned her head down, looked at other side of street and not once at her, but with a fast pace she approached and when she thought she would growl something to her ear about tomorrow's emission, she felt a strong grip.

Alex embraced her with all her might, hugging her finer body. Bradley stood like an enchanted, afraid to move or react in any way when Alex’s hands wrapped her around tightly and awkwardly, as if they weren't doing it often.

And here again, something hit her. Since Mitch was thrown out, her relationship has clearly not worked out and her daughter has been at home very rarely, did Alex have any other loved ones at all? The kind of people that she could go out with at night without saying a word about work? The answer came quickly - no.

And then in silent, Alex broke away from her and, without even looking at her face, as if she was afraid of her reaction, she took a quick steps to hers room.

Bradley looked at her with a growing sense of compassion for the woman.

She was at work, surrounded by people who wanted to harm her, not knowing what she was doing or why she was doing it. Her relationship broke up, her daughter might hate her, and she was all alone.

Bradley's finally got it. Alex wasn't strong at all, it was just a mask. The mask, covered with new masks. 

And just today, Bradley managed to take them all off.


End file.
